Fake reviews: why buying reviews backfires

Buying Google reviews is a bad trade. Google's filters catch many purchased reviews and remove them, sometimes along with real ones, and can put a public warning on your profile. Since late 2024, the Federal Trade Commission also has a rule that makes buying fake reviews a federal violation with real fines. And the people who read your reviews often spot the fakes anyway. Here is how it goes wrong, and what to do instead.

The offers you will see

If you run a small business, you have probably had at least one of these:

An email or text offering "50 five-star Google reviews" for a set fee.
A marketing company promising to "build your reputation" with reviews from "real accounts".
A friend who knows someone who will write reviews for a small payment each.
A reputation service that offers to bury your bad reviews under new good ones.
A customer or neighbor who offers to write a few reviews "to get you started".

They all have the same problem. The reviews are not from people who used your business, or they were paid for, or both.

What Google does about it

Google's rules for reviews say they must reflect a real experience, and they must not be paid for, offered for a reward, or written by the business owner, staff or anyone with a conflict of interest. Google runs automated filters on every review and also acts on reports from the public.

What can happen to a business that buys reviews:

The reviews disappear. Purchased reviews often come in bursts, from accounts that review many unrelated businesses in different cities, or from the same few devices. Filters remove them, sometimes weeks later, so you paid for nothing.
Real reviews go with them. When Google cleans up a profile it suspects, honest reviews can get caught too, and they are hard to get back.
New reviews get blocked for a while. Google has started pausing new reviews on profiles where it finds fake ones.
A warning shows on your profile. Google can display a notice on your Business Profile telling the public that fake reviews were removed. That notice is seen by exactly the people you wanted to impress.
The profile can be suspended. In serious cases the whole Business Profile is taken down, which means you vanish from Maps until it is reinstated, if it is.

What the FTC rule says

The Federal Trade Commission finalized a rule on consumer reviews and testimonials that took effect in October 2024. In plain words, it targets:

Fake reviews. Reviews from people who do not exist, who never used the business, or that misstate their experience, including ones written by AI.
Buying reviews. Paying for reviews, or giving something in exchange, when the reward depends on the review being positive (or negative, for a competitor).
Insider reviews. Reviews by owners, managers, employees or their relatives that do not clearly say so.
Suppressing reviews. Threatening or pressuring customers to remove or not post negative reviews.
Fake followers and views. Buying fake social media signs of popularity to look bigger than you are.

The FTC can seek civil penalties for each violation, and each fake review can count separately. You can read the rule and the FTC's plain-language business guidance at ftc.gov. If you are unsure whether a specific practice is allowed, for example a referral program or a customer appreciation gift, ask your attorney before you start it.

Note that Google's own rules are stricter than the FTC's in one way: Google bans any reward for a review, even one given for honest reviews of any rating.

Why customers notice

Even when the filters miss them, bought reviews tend to look wrong to a careful reader:

They say nothing specific. "Great service, highly recommend!" with no job, no person, no detail.
They arrive in a cluster. Ten reviews in three days after months of nothing.
The reviewers' other reviews are strange. Tap a reviewer's name and you see they reviewed a dentist in Ohio, a nail salon in Texas and a roofer in Florida on the same day.
They do not match the business. A review praising your "lovely restaurant" when you install fences.

Your customers, especially older ones, may not know the term "fake review", but they know when something reads like an advertisement. A profile with twelve honest reviews that mention real jobs is more convincing than one with a hundred bland ones.

The quieter versions that also cross the line

Some practices feel harmless but break Google's rules, the FTC's rule, or both:

Discounts or gifts for reviews. "Leave a review and get a free car wash."
Asking staff, friends or family to post reviews as if they were customers.
Review gating. Asking customers privately whether they are happy, then sending only the happy ones to Google.
Writing a review and asking a customer to post it under their name.
Posting fake bad reviews on a competitor.
Offering money to a customer to remove a bad review.

If you have done any of these, stop, and if you know which reviews were not genuine, you can remove your own reviews from your own accounts. You do not need to confess publicly, but you should not keep adding to it.

What actually works instead

There is no shortcut, but the honest route is simpler than it sounds.

Ask every customer, at the right moment. Right after a job went well, by text, with your direct review link. Asking customers for Google reviews the right way has the link, the timing and the wording.
Make it one tap. A QR code on your invoice or card, a link in your follow-up email.
Reply to the reviews you have. It shows readers a real person is there.
Be patient. Reviews come steadily if you ask steadily. A slow, honest build looks right to Google and to people.

If you are new and have no reviews yet

Being new with few reviews is normal, and readers forgive it. What fills the gap is not fake reviews but proof of a different kind: photos of your real work, the licenses and insurance you carry, how long you have done the job, a clear promise you can keep. Website text for a business with no reviews yet covers what to write.

What to do this week

Ignore or delete any offer to sell you reviews. Do not reply to it.
Read your own reviews with a stranger's eye. If any came from staff, family or a paid service, remove the ones you control.
Save your direct review link on your phone and ask your next three happy customers.
If a competitor's reviews look bought, report the clearest examples and move on.

Honest reviews work best next to a website that backs them up with real photos and clear information. If yours is not there yet, you can see your site rebuilt first.